Brad Richards
| birth_place = Murray Harbour, Prince Edward Island, Canada | career_start = 2000 | draft = 64th overall | draft_year = 1998 | draft_team = Tampa Bay Lightning }} Brad Richards (born Bradley Glenn Richards on May 2, 1980) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey centre in the National Hockey League (NHL). He has played for the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, the Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings Brad won the Stanley Cup in 2004 with the Lightning where he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) during the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Early Playing Career Brad used to play for the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL from 1997 to 2000. On September 26, 2004, the team retired his jersey. During his final season with Rimouski, he won nearly every honor possible for a Canadian junior player in the QMJHL: he earned the Jean Béliveau Trophy after leading the league with 186 points, as well as the Telus Cup (which is given to the league's best offensive player). He won the QMJHL and Canadian Hockey League Plus/Minus Awards with a plus-80 mark, and was a First-Team All-Star in both the Quebec circuit and the CHL, as well as the CHL Player of the Year and Leading Scorer. In the postseason, Brad took home both the Guy Lafleur Trophy as MVP of the 'Q' league playoffs, then the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as MVP of the 2000 Memorial Cup, as the Océanic won both the QMJHL playoff title and the CHL national championship. Professional Playing Career Tampa Bay Lightning Brad was drafted in the 3rd round (64th overall) by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, having recorded 82 assists and 115 points in his draft year. During that same draft, the Lightning selected Vincent Lecavalier (Brad's teammate at the both Athol Murray College of Notre Dame and Rimouski) with the first overall pick. Brad went on to win the Conn Smythe and the Lady Byng Trophies in 2004. He also won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004. Later that same year, Brad won the World Cup of Hockey Championship playing on Team Canada. He holds the record for game-winning goals in a single playoff season with seven in 2004, overtaking Joe Sakic's and Joe Nieuwendyk's record of six. During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Brad played for Ak Bars Kazan in the Russian Super League on a team with fellow NHL players Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexei Kovalev, Vincent Lecavalier, Michael Nylander, Alexei Zhitnik, Dany Heatley and Nikolai Khabibulin. He also played for Team Canada at the 2006 Olympics. After the team was eliminated from the 2006 playoffs, the Lightning signed Brad to a five-year, US$39 million contract. Dallas Stars On February 26, 2008 (roughly three hours before the NHL trade deadline), Brad was traded to the Dallas Stars in a blockbuster deal along with goaltender Johan Holmqvist for goalie Mike Smith, centre Jeff Halpern, winger Jussi Jokinen and a 2009 4th round draft pick. He set the Stars' franchise record of most assists in a player's first game with five. The record is also a career high for Brad. The Stars defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 7–4 and he was named the number one star of the game. In the 2008 Playoffs, Brad tied an NHL record by scoring four points in a single period in game two against the San Jose Sharks. During the 2008–09 season, Brad tallied 16 goals and 48 points in 55 games before sustaining a broken right wrist following a check from Columbus Blue Jackets forward Jakub Voracek on February 16, 2009. He met with a specialist the following day and missed 15 games. On March 21, 2009, Brad returned to the Dallas Stars lineup, but then, he broke his other hand in the third period of Dallas' loss to San Jose. He would not return for the rest of the season, and the Stars missed the playoffs. In the 2009–10 offseason, the team removed general managers Brett Hull and Les Jackson (who had traded for Brad) and fired coach Dave Tippett, replacing the latter with Marc Crawford. Despite the new regime and the team's woeful finish in the standings for the second straight season, he enjoyed a career year, matching a personal high with 91 points playing mainly alongside Loui Eriksson and roommate James Neal. Brad finished 7th in the NHL points standings that year, just behind former teammate Martin St. Louis. He also finished fourth in total assists and second in powerplay production in the league. The Stars failed to reach the playoffs again. After the season, Brad was named a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy. New York Rangers After becoming an unrestricted free agent, Brad signed a nine-year, $58.5 million contract with the New York Rangers on July 2, 2011, reuniting him with John Tortorella (his coach from the 2004 Lightning team that won the Stanley Cup and another member of that 2004 team Ruslan Fedotenko). He was also approached by the Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning. On October 8, 2011, Brad scored his first goal as a Ranger in a 2–1 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The game was played at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. He would go on to record 25 goals along with 41 assists during his first season with the Rangers, as well as six goals and nine assists in 20 playoff games as the Rangers were ultimately eliminated from the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the New Jersey Devils. On April 19, 2013, Brad scored his first career NHL hat trick in a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Chicago Blackhawks On the first day of free agency on July 1, 2014, Brad signed a one-year, $2 million deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. By signing with the Blackhawks, he became the first player in the franchise's history to wear #91. On November 17, 2014, he played in his 1,000th career NHL game against his former team, the Dallas Stars. The Blackhawks (along with Brad), would later face his former team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals and win the Stanley Cup in six games. Detroit Red Wings On July 1, 2015, Brad signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings, worth up to $4 million with playoff bonuses. With his traditional #19 retired for Steve Yzerman, he chose to wear #17 with the Red Wings. The Red Wings narrowly made the playoffs for the 25th consecutive season. Brad's late-season efforts included a game-tying goal against the New York Rangers on March 12 with 32 seconds remaining (The wings later won the game 2-1 in overtime), and a two-point game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 2, 2016. In the playoffs, Brad recorded one goal as the Red Wings were eliminated in five games by the Tampa Bay Lightning. On July 20, 2016, he announced his retirement. Awards & Achievements *1999–2000: CHL Player of the Year *1999–2000: CHL Leading Scorer *1999–2000: CHL Plus/Minus Award Winner *1999–2000: CHL First All-Star Team *1999–2000: QMJHL Michel Brière Memorial Trophy (Most Valuable Player) *1999–2000: QMJHL Jean Béliveau Trophy (Leading scorer) *1999–2000: QMJHL Plus/Minus Award Winner *1999–2000: QMJHL Guy Lafleur Trophy (Playoff MVP) *1999–2000: QMJHL First All-Star Team *1999–2000: Memorial Cup Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy (MVP) *1999–2000: Memorial Cup All-Star Team *2000–01: NHL All-Rookie Team *2001–02: NHL YoungStars Game participant *2003–04: NHL Stanley Cup (Tampa Bay Lightning) *2003–04: NHL Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP) *2003–04: NHL Lady Byng Trophy (Sportsmanship) *2010–11: Played in the NHL All-Star Game *2014–15: NHL Stanley Cup (Chicago Blackhawks) Career Statistics Regular season and playoffs International International Personal Life Brad has been friends with Vincent Lecavalier since he was 14 years old when they first met at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, a boarding school with an excellent hockey program in Saskatchewan, Canada. They were roommates and soon became good friends as they were both the youngest players on their hockey team. Since then, they were teammates for the Rimouski Océanic of the QMJHL and Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL. Vincent was also responsible for suggesting to the Lightning management after they had drafted him to draft Brad. During the offseason, Brad goes back to Prince Edward Island, his childhood home. He has hosted the Brad Richards PEI Celebrity Golf Classic for the past six years. The event supports two charities: Children’s Wish Foundation, Prince Edward Island Chapter and Autism Society of Prince Edward Island. He is friends with "Hockey Night in Canada" host Ron MacLean (who spends a lot of time in PEI). During the season, he lives in an apartment in Manhattan. Brad is also a well-known wine aficionado and filmed a segment about wine tasting for NHL.com. He is also an American football fan & considers the Green Bay Packers to be his favorite NFL team. Brad rented a suite at the St. Pete Times Forum for several Tampa Bay Lightning hockey games and invited families dealing with various forms of pediatric cancer to use it. After each game, he would go and visit the children who had come to watch the game. It began during the 2002–2003 season and ended in 2008. When he was traded to the Dallas Stars, Brad continued his charity work with the Children’s Medical Center’s Oncology Department, supplying tickets for sick children. He also donates tickets to every home game to men and women in the military. On April 23, 2010, Brad underwent arthoscopic hip surgery to repair a small labrum tear. In September of 2010, he donated $500,000 to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. On October 7, 2014, Brad and his wife Rachelle welcomed their first child, a son named Luca. Category:1980 births Category:Chicago Blackhawks players Category:Tampa Bay Lightning players Category:Tampa Bay Lightning draft picks Category:Dallas Stars players Category:New York Rangers players Category:Detroit Red Wings players Category:Canadian ice hockey players Category:Rimouski Oceanic players Category:Kazan Ak-Bars players Category:Stanley Cup champions